The Red Hot Fashion Trend Inspired By Sonia Sotomayor

On swearing in day we wear red.

Sonia Sotomayor during day two of her Senate confirmation hearing (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

In addition to being at the forefront of liberal jurisprudence, Justice Sonia Sotomayor also knows how to make a statement without saying a word. Indeed, the justice also provided inspiration to fellow Bronx native Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she was sworn into Congress last week.

As has become par for the course for the Congresswoman, her look for the occasion — all white in honor of suffragettes — came under scrutiny. But far from being overly critical, a large swath of those on social media were in love with the look, particularly the hoop earrings and red lips.

Obligatory photo of AOC being sworn into Congress, just in case you were in a coma last week and missed all the coverage:

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Being the social media whiz she is, AOC quickly responded to the love over her look with a tweet that explained the meaning behind her deliberate look.

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That’s a great story. Only problem? It isn’t quite true.

As reported in 2009 by Latina magazine, that’s not exactly how it went down:

While President Obama’s staff was preparing Sotomayor for the confirmation hearings, the team covered all of the potentially explosive questions and briefed her on every minute detail, including how to dress for the cameras. They even advised her to keep her nails a neutral shade, which she did. But on the day of the White House reception celebrating her appointment, Sotomayor asked the president to look at her freshly manicured nails, holding up her hands to show off her favorite color: a fire-engine red. The president chuckled, saying that she had been warned against that color.

So, as the photo at the top of this article from Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing shows, she didn’t rock red nails during her confirmation. But she didn’t give up red nails for life, just because she’s a Supreme Court justice. She even managed to rub the vaguely sexist, though undoubtedly well-intentioned, advice in Barack Obama’s face. Not a bad compromise.

We can only hope that as more women, and specifically women of color, attain positions of power this need to control what they wear ends and women feel free to wear what they want.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).